150+ Museums Around the World Are Turning Their Collections Into Free Coloring Book Pages

Everyone can benefit from coloring. While the activity is often viewed as one for children, adults can find solace in the quiet practice of coloring inside of the lines. Once you’ve found the best colored pencils, there’s a seemingly endless supply of adult coloring books. And even if you completed all of your available coloring supply, cultural institutions are making sure that you’ll never run out of interesting things to illuminate with different hues. #ColorOurCollections is a campaign where museums and libraries select images from their collections and share them as free coloring book pages on social media.

When you think of #ColorOurCollections, you might picture coloring pages from art museums. The joy of this campaign, however, is in the fact that many different types of institutions share black and white line drawings. #ColorOurCollections is organized by The New York Academy of Medicine, and they’ve included some strange historical artworks to fill, while others, like the University of Florida Department of Entomology and Nematology, have a coloring book dedicated to different spiders that are based on the research they do. In printing these pages and filling them in, you’re sure to learn more about the institution and even the subjects that you’re coloring. It’s a great way to immerse yourself in a different world.

The New York Academy of Medicine has all of the 2018 #ColorOurCollections on one handy website—there are over 150 to choose from. If you’re curious about the offerings from 2017, check out some of our favorite free coloring book pages from that year.

Over 150 cultural institutions from around the world are participating in #ColorOurCollections, in which they release free coloring book pages based on their offerings.